Joel also had a community going already with the "business of software" forum (imo the spiritual predecessor of HN, patio11 was very well know there) and the co

Joel also had a community going already with the "business of software" forum (imo the spiritual predecessor of HN, patio11 was very well know there) and the comments sections of Jeff's blog was a great place for discussion too. They also had a really good podcast going as they were developing it. And a good 'bad guy' too, the site with a dash (experts-exchange).